Why We Don't Love Modern Era RUSH

[Digital Dad]

I like a little bit of all Rush, there may be albums I don't love as much, but there is always stuff thats great...even RTB has some great music on it. ;)

[robertrobyn]

Modern era Rush is part of their history, Just saying!! I actually listen from start to finish records from GuP on more than I listen to older stuff.

[JohnnyBlaze]

The era that probably gets the least amount of love is the 90s (whatever era you want to call that).

[jamie]

I like their modern stuff, not as much as their older stuff but it's pretty good. The 90's is my least favorite era of theirs.

[Segue Myles]

I personally think modern Rush is absolutely fantastic. Sure, SA and CA do not rank amongst my very favourite albums, but I completely understand their appeal and genuinely agree that, in spite of any personal opinion, they are great albums.

 

Now as for Vapor Trails, one of my very favourite albums ever!

 

I think my only gripe is that I love the Rush era from 75-89 so much, everything that follows just feels a little less than WOOWOO!

 

And if I don't get that WOOWOO feeling, its hard for me to get excited. Ya know what I mean?!?

[Union 5-3992]

I personally think modern Rush is absolutely fantastic. Sure, SA and CA do not rank amongst my very favourite albums, but I completely understand their appeal and genuinely agree that, in spite of any personal opinion, they are great albums.

 

Now as for Vapor Trails, one of my very favourite albums ever!

 

I think my only gripe is that I love the Rush era from 75-89 so much, everything that follows just feels a little less than WOOWOO!

 

And if I don't get that WOOWOO feeling, its hard for me to get excited. Ya know what I mean?!?

[RUSHHEAD666]

I love modern Rush.

 

You won't find me dismissing it like a lot of the old curmudgeons who post here now ;)

 

I'm one of the biggest Rush Fans in the world and I totally get it.

 

I love every Rush song ever made through "Counterparts."

 

I can't stand "VT" as you know and the rest of their "modern" canon is hit or miss.

 

I was a huge fan of "Snakes And Arrows" when it came out. Heck I "loved" it. But now it's just ok to me. "We Hold On" is my favorite track on that record.

 

Oh well.

 

It is what it is.

 

Hit or miss.

 

Such is life.

[patjnev]

I don't like much of what Rush has made since T4E because it doesn't appeal to me . In fact I consider "Alien Shore" their last good song. No worries not everything a band does makes people happy. I am still glad for Rush that they stuck with it and got into the RRHOF and Neil was able to get his retirement nest egg stashed away. But I do consider this latest incarnation of Rush the worse . But even at their worse Rush is way better then most bands . I just hope they don 't do anything silly like hire the FooFighters drummer lol.

[Segue Myles]

I don't like much of what Rush has made since T4E because it doesn't appeal to me . In fact I consider "Alien Shore" their last good song. No worries not everything a band does makes people happy. I am still glad for Rush that they stuck with it and got into the RRHOF and Neil was able to get his retirement nest egg stashed away. But I do consider this latest incarnation of Rush the worse . But even at their worse Rush is way better then most bands . I just hope they don 't do anything silly like hire the FooFighters drummer lol.

 

Hawkins is a great drummer!

[Blue J]

I try to steer clear of those who purport to speak for every last person.

[Segue Myles]

I try to steer clear of those who purport to speak for every last person.

 

But we all agree on everything Blue J!

 

EV-ER-Y-THIN-G!

[Blue J]

I try to steer clear of those who purport to speak for every last person.

 

But we all agree on everything Blue J!

 

EV-ER-Y-THIN-G!

 

Heh heh...so you're the one who spiked the Kool Aid!

 

;)

[rugen]

Good question, i think it has to do with the different approach in songwriting. I remember Geddy saying that it more difficult to write good short songs than long epics ones where you patch different parts together like the band did in the 70's. But the paradox is that the band were locked in the studio for a longer times these days and to me that must have a impact on the results of the quality of their songs. If it was the easy way to write those long epics, the band put more work on the writing and recording process. If you listen to Clockwork Angeles, what i don't like it that it's sound like a jam of ideas that are stretch out to the max to make long song that are not as interesting as their first songs from the 70's and 80's. But in the end, all this explanation could be false, because impossible to explain, apart from saying that the magic is gone for me in their modern era (90's and up...)

[Your_Lion]

We spent hours per day in our beds looking at the "books"

Ew No I didn't

[Blue J]

We spent hours per day in our beds looking at the "books"

Ew No I didn't

 

:P Hahaha...

[EagleMoon]

I think there are several reasons why things went downhill after TFE. Neil's tragedy and subsequently his moving to L.A. The band wasn't working on music together anymore. They were emailing parts back and forth. Songs became more disjointed, more patched together. The band lost the fire and forward momentum they had previous to '97. It feels like they ran out of ideas and didn't know where to go from there. Vapor Trails was a return of the band but at the cost of good songwriting and decent production. Snakes & Arrows was much better from the production standpoint but the songs have lost the innocence of previous albums. CA's showed the band still has some fire inside but now Geddys vocals have majorly declined and have to be studio enhanced. Of all this, I still love the band but I mourn for the more carefree and vital Rush. I was watching the TFE Molson footage the other day and it really made me realize how much I miss that band. They were still great then and still at the top of their game.

[satchmothesnowdog]

I grew up in the 70s and 80s with Rush as my favorite band and I loved their soind. However, even then I was able to hear a progression in their music. I eagerly took it all in until VT, which had to grow on me for.some.reason, but now I.love it. But, old Rush was this brief four year window in time, and even then, they were moving forward.

[Fridge]

If most people were brutally honest, they would agree that the sun rose and set on their golden era sometime between 76-82

[HalfwayToGone]

I disagree with a lot of this thread. My own relationship with Rush changed over the years for multiple reasons, none of which are related to how much time I spent listening to one album or another. In fact the more i beat an album to death, the sooner I'm done with it and on to something more fresh. I mostly hear music while driving, and I have continued clocking a lot of time behind the wheel, so I still listen to music often and for long stretches of time. What changed over time was me and the band, both. Young men playing rock tend to find one dominant emotion to express, and it's usually aggressive and geared toward showing off their prowess, but over time a lot of people become more emotionally broad, and their way of expressing themselves also becomes a lot more emotionally expressive, which sometimes goes from twist and shout and she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah to let it be and a day in the life, and other times it goes from ride the lightning and master of puppets to lulu, or from loud love and rusty cage to black hole sun. The same thing goes for the audience. Personally, I got into Rush in '81 and gravitated right away to older stuff from the first live album, because I was fascinated with drums, learning to play and trying to increase my chops. At that time, anything easy to play was crap (even if it was brilliantly catchy and evocative), and anything difficult to play was awesome (even if it was completely lacking any sort of musicality). Eventually I started realizing that there are more important things than chops, like taste and communication of something worthwhile. Then anything that was mindless corporate mediocre entertainment with no message and no imagination sucked, and anything thoughtful and creative or with a strong statement was fair game. I also was exposed to much more musicians of various levels of chops, and realized that there were drummers with more chops than Peart or much less squared off, stiff style of playing. Just like I gave up listening to KISS for many years after discovering Hendrix and the Who and Beatles, and then Yes, ELP and Rush, I let Rush sit on the shelf for years when I went and started getting more into Jazz and fusion and funk and grunge and then back into sabbath and Zeppelin. Eventually I came back to KISS and Rush for the things I loved about them, but with a much more vast understanding of all sorts of music and more life experience and ability to hear what is expressive and clever in music and lyrics, and my attachment to Rush was tempered a bit by all that experience. My appreciation for the gigantic part they played in getting me more deeply and directly involved in music will never go away, but I don't worship Neil Peart as the greatest drummer who ever lived--he's simply not that to me anymore, although at one time I thought he was. I was younger and less informed. Now I just know better. Still love his playing and some of his lyrics, but there's lots of better drummers and lots of better lyricists, and better singers than Geddy, and better guitarists than Alex, etc. Rush had some awesome chemistry, and CA for me is better than anything else they did after power windows, easily, although the song stick it out was a bright spot in there for me. But back in the day I'd never consider for one moment that Adele is anything worth listening to, but now? I just got tix for her 2016 show, and I'm looking forward to it. Not because I'm an Adele worshipper, but because she can sing her damn ass off effortlessly, and it's beautiful to watch her do it. I saw Steely Dan this year--reeling in the years is much more meaningful to a nearly 50 year-old than a 14 year-old. Some people stop maturing at age 5 or so, and want everything to stay exactly the same from that point forward, but others keep maturing well past 30, and their tastes evolve all along the way.

[Mr. JD]

I pretty much like all Rush. Always have, always will.

[Tony R]

I disagree with a lot of this thread. My own relationship with Rush changed over the years for multiple reasons, none of which are related to how much time I spent listening to one album or another. In fact the more i beat an album to death, the sooner I'm done with it and on to something more fresh. I mostly hear music while driving, and I have continued clocking a lot of time behind the wheel, so I still listen to music often and for long stretches of time. What changed over time was me and the band, both. Young men playing rock tend to find one dominant emotion to express, and it's usually aggressive and geared toward showing off their prowess, but over time a lot of people become more emotionally broad, and their way of expressing themselves also becomes a lot more emotionally expressive, which sometimes goes from twist and shout and she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah to let it be and a day in the life, and other times it goes from ride the lightning and master of puppets to lulu, or from loud love and rusty cage to black hole sun. The same thing goes for the audience. Personally, I got into Rush in '81 and gravitated right away to older stuff from the first live album, because I was fascinated with drums, learning to play and trying to increase my chops. At that time, anything easy to play was crap (even if it was brilliantly catchy and evocative), and anything difficult to play was awesome (even if it was completely lacking any sort of musicality). Eventually I started realizing that there are more important things than chops, like taste and communication of something worthwhile. Then anything that was mindless corporate mediocre entertainment with no message and no imagination sucked, and anything thoughtful and creative or with a strong statement was fair game. I also was exposed to much more musicians of various levels of chops, and realized that there were drummers with more chops than Peart or much less squared off, stiff style of playing. Just like I gave up listening to KISS for many years after discovering Hendrix and the Who and Beatles, and then Yes, ELP and Rush, I let Rush sit on the shelf for years when I went and started getting more into Jazz and fusion and funk and grunge and then back into sabbath and Zeppelin. Eventually I came back to KISS and Rush for the things I loved about them, but with a much more vast understanding of all sorts of music and more life experience and ability to hear what is expressive and clever in music and lyrics, and my attachment to Rush was tempered a bit by all that experience. My appreciation for the gigantic part they played in getting me more deeply and directly involved in music will never go away, but I don't worship Neil Peart as the greatest drummer who ever lived--he's simply not that to me anymore, although at one time I thought he was. I was younger and less informed. Now I just know better. Still love his playing and some of his lyrics, but there's lots of better drummers and lots of better lyricists, and better singers than Geddy, and better guitarists than Alex, etc. Rush had some awesome chemistry, and CA for me is better than anything else they did after power windows, easily, although the song stick it out was a bright spot in there for me. But back in the day I'd never consider for one moment that Adele is anything worth listening to, but now? I just got tix for her 2016 show, and I'm looking forward to it. Not because I'm an Adele worshipper, but because she can sing her damn ass off effortlessly, and it's beautiful to watch her do it. I saw Steely Dan this year--reeling in the years is much more meaningful to a nearly 50 year-old than a 14 year-old. Some people stop maturing at age 5 or so, and want everything to stay exactly the same from that point forward, but others keep maturing well past 30, and their tastes evolve all along the way.

That's a well thought out and delivered post.

In my youth I was obsessed with Rush and I would play albums to death. Around the time I got married Rush and I started playing away from each other. I still bought the albums and attended the tours but their, in my eyes, decline meant I spent 10 years listening to 70s music almost exclusively. With the loss of passion for Rush came a loss of passion, strangely, for new music and of course I had a wife and daughter to attend to - my new family replacing much of what I had before. It was if 'new music' became associated with 'disappointment'.

Anyhoo, around the turn of the century the Internet dragged me back into the world of music discovery and I threw myself into new (to me) bands and also jazz and classical. I still love those Rush albums from the halcyon days and still dislike the albums Hold a Your Fire through Vapor Trails. Luckily my disappointment with Vapor Trails was tempered by my new found thirst for discovery and now I feel I can appreciate Rush in general more whilst not idolising the individuals.

At my age it is logical and reasonable to prefer Rush music from my teenage years as that was the stuff that got me into Rush in the fast place but I do not spend hours and hours a week listening to the band. I can go weeks or even months not listening to Rush and that's OK. There's shitloads of good music out there.

Edited December 18, 2015 by Tony R

[JohnnyBlaze]

Are we The Borg or something??

Borg!

http://sportsthenandnow.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Borg.jpg

[AnEggplant]

I think it's a matter of age and what you grew up with. For me, I'm a younger person, and the last three albums are among my favorites because they're closer to my era of growing up. I still adore the 70s stuff and have grown to appreciate the synth album way more than I used to but still, Clockwork Angels is my favorite album and Snakes and Vapor Trails are top 8 for me at least.

[bluefox4000]

For the most part......a couple things.

 

1. the songwriting is just not as good........sorry it's not.

 

2. Production......aside from Snakes........sucks.

 

Mick

[Lorraine]

No way is Rush of today close to what they once were. After T4E, they were never quite the same. This isn't to say that they aren't still great - just that they were a lot greater back then.

 

As for their drummer, he started to have "that look" in the nineties, for whatever reason.